An alien kind of bottle
by Chris Kenworthy
Summary: King Max and his closest companions get welcome news.


"Your majesty! There's been a message!!"

Max looked up from the table where he'd been working on logistical supply plans. (It wasn't really a king's job, but what the heck, it was something that he could do to help.) "A message? From whom - is Ranser complaining about his millitia casualties again? Dammit, we're all taking losses!" He scowled.

"No - it's a capsule from earth!"

That completely shook Max out of all of his worries about logistic supplies, Ranser, and even casualty counts. "Earth - how??" And without even waiting for an answer to that short question, he went on. "Do you know who it's from? Have the others been informed?"

"Umm... no, I think not, sir, but if it is your wish, I shall make certain to send..."

"Bring them all here, at once!" Max beamed. This was one situation where having all his commands obeyed without hesitation was actually pretty cool. "Oh, is that..." he noticed a heavy, slightly familiar shape in the Antarian servant's hand, and rushed forward before he disappeared entirely on his errand.

"Umm, yes majesty. I... I shall return as soon as possible." Gerint left the orb on a small counter next to the door and hurried back out of the room.

About eight minutes later, Michael, Isabel, and Tess were all sitting around the table, from which most of the papers that Max had been working were now cleared off. "Okay Gerint," Max said, smiling at the green-skinned and short man, who was possibly the person he trusted most out of all of those native to this planet. "First off - exactly what kind of Orb is this, and how did it get here from Earth?"

"They are a simple form of holographic recorder, and I believe that when you sent Sir Takkinam back to earth, to, erm, to help keep an eye on your friends there, he took several of them along. It arrived not half an ool past, through a small spacial wormhole, directly into the dispatch office of the castle." That was essentially a mail room, with messages going out both physically and through more insubstantial means to anywhere on the planet - or sometimes even further.

"And I suppose there's no way to know exactly who it's from or what they have to say other than to play it?" Michael asked, and Gerint nodded his agreement.

"Then, um, I think that we'd better see it all together," Isabel suggested.

"Very good, your highness. Do you wish privacy?"

"Yes, thank you Gerint," Max said, and Gerint got up and bowed. (Max wished that he wouldn't but it had been slow going to break the servants of that habit, especially when all four of them were together.) "Umm, just one thing - how do I start playback?"

"Oh. Simply hold it in your hand, sire, press on the glyphs on either side, and concentrate. That should be all that is required."

Gerint made his exit, and Max turned to the others. Tess took a deep breath. "Okay - are we ready for this?" Max asked his family

"Hell yeah!" Michael almost shouted. Isabel laughed.

"Go ahead," Tess said softly. None of them could have forgotten an early morning nearly two years ago, when they had gotten another message from two orbs very like this one. Then, they had been on Earth, getting a message from Antar. What would they learn now? Max looked around at the three of them, all wearing Antarian clothes, kind of flowy and drapeish, as they settled down on the armless chairs near one end of his office.

Max sat down himself, held the orb in his hand, and it was many seconds before he could bring himself to actually press and concentrate, to begin the message. Light and color suddenly speared out of the pointed end of the orb, first manifesting only as a confused storm of visual static, sheets of purple and yellow flecked with red snow. Suddenly it resolved into... Liz's bedroom! Max recognized *that* immediately. Liz was sitting on the edge of her bed, wearing a casual outfit - blue jeans and a green t-shirt, her hair long and loose. "Testing, testing," she said, in a voice so real that Max could have sworn she were physically in the castle with them. It was a bit of a shock to hear words in English - even the four of them had taken to speaking to each other in the Antar tongue when they didn't have secrets to keep from those around them - but Max adjusted instantly. "Are you sure this thing is recording?" Liz asked doubtfully. She looked so much like how he remembered her, and yet not quite the same, her dark tresses slightly wavey, her figure just a bit more developed.

Someone offscreen assured her, (in a mumble that Max couldn't quite resolve into words,) that the system was operative, and Liz smiled as if she felt slightly foolish for asking the question. "Okay - Hi Max! Hi everybody else - I suppose that King Max has probably brought you all together to watch this." Isabel chuckled softly at the accuracy of Liz's prediction. "So, umm... Taccy told us about this holomesage thing, and that if we recorded a message for you guys, he could beam it back home or something. I... I was a little annoyed at first that you sent some new alien to 'take care' of us at first, Max, but Taccy's a good guy, and - well, the fact that he provided a way for me to talk to you has eliminated the last of my annoyance." Max smiled. He'd been wondering himself if Liz would take a resentment to that development, but he hadn't seen any other way. Just because the four of them were home didn't mean that Kivar's agents back on Earth might not have some reason to go after their family and sweethearts (not to mention friends,) and so, since none of them could come back yet themselves, sending a trained knight and bodyguard was the best that any of them could come up with.

"Well... all four of us are going to try to put our own personalized messages on this thing - but I got to go first," Liz continued. "Max... I love you, all of us miss you. It's been hard, not knowing hardly anything about how things have been going for you out there... Taccy's been able to tell me a little, from before he left, and that's what I'm hanging on to. It's... it's been tough, but what else can I do?" Max's heart ached as he saw that there were tears coming to the eyes of a girl who was the person he loved most dearly in the entire universe. "Oh, man - I told myself that I wasn't going to cry while I was on camera. I - I can't wait until you're able to come home, and the two of us can hold each other in our arms one more time." Max realized that his own eyes were far from dry.

"Let's see, you probably want to hear some more details about what's been going on here in Roswell." Max nodded automatically, then felt a little foolish when he remembered that Liz couldn't see him. Michael snickered softly. "Your parents are doing pretty well... they miss you and Isabel, of course, and Michael too. Wouldn't stop searching the country for you for months." Isabel gasped softly. "But I think they've started to accept that they won't be able to drag you home just by wanting it hard enough, and that you love them very much and will be coming home as soon as you can."

"You bet," Max and Isabel replied almost in unison, just a fraction out of step with each other, and couldn't help laughing, which covered up part of what Liz said next.

"...tough for the cafe lately... Dad is keeping his hopes up, but this stupid franchise chain with big mexican Sombreros has moved in, built two locations in Roswell and one down in Artesia, and I swear that they've been trying every dirty trick in the book to drive out the competition, like us. Maria and I have been discussing plans for a little payback, but we don't have the resources that they do." Max sighed unhappily, realizing that he could do very little about Liz's problems from where he was.

"It's February of senior year, so everybody's thinking and worrying about University. I've pretty much settled on going to California... I've got a fighting chance of getting out of the wait list at Stanford, and if not, UC Berkeley is my safety school." She giggled. "Somehow I can't quite believe that - Berkeley's my *safety* school!! And I - I'm still wearing the whirlpool pendant." For a few seconds, Liz was busy pulling the leather band out from under the collar of her shirt, and the heavy broken ellipse that hung from it.

Max's heart suddenly slammed into his throat, remembering that last night before they left, when Max had given her the necklace to remember him by, and had offered to use his powers to make it whole, to re-attach the broken fragment that Eddie of the Mesaliko had given them. Liz had refused, had told him to keep the little broken bit, that the oval shouldn't be healed until her heart was healed - that it would be rejoined when the two of them were reunited. Reluctantly, Max had agreed to this, and now his fingers reached down into a hidden pouch in his Antarian clothes, finding the little metallic fragment. "I - I haven't taken it off - it's been around my neck since you left, and that way I know that part of you is still here with me - that you're still in my heart." Liz took a ragged breath. "What... what else? Umm... even though I miss you terribly, I'm very proud of what you're doing over there, and I pray every night that you'll come home safe when the job is done." She sighed. "Alex - Alex, it's your turn now I think. Goodbye, Max." And she waved at him, and then Alex walked 'into the shot' and replaced Liz where she had been sitting. As Max's eyes tracked Liz walking out of view, he heard Isabel's sharp intake of breath as she saw her own sweetie.

Alex looked... pretty much the same as Isabel and the others remembered him... almost so much the same that he seemed different. Was that possible?? Then again, there were a few differences - his hair was cut just a bit differently. He had a buttoned white shirt and dark blue pants that seemed somehow very formal. The smile on his face was completely familiar, though. "Hi, sweetie! Hope things are going well over there. I... I wonder, like all the time, what things are like over there. Takkinam said that you're in the middle of a war... is it scary for you? Do you end up in dangerous situations, or do they keep you well protected? Do people around there really treat you like a princess, and how do you feel about it? They say all girls dream of being princesses, but I never got the impression that that was something you wanted at all, that you just wanted to be the girl next door." He paused. "Sorry, I'm rambling, and asking all of these questions that you can't answer probably isn't a big help."

"Oh, it's great just to hear your voice, no matter what you say," Isabel whispered under her breath.

"Liz talked about your parents, so I don't really have much to add about them, and there isn't really anything terribly interesting going on in my life. School, of course. Oh, I kinda got a job, as a technical associate down at the Best Buy - mostly installing antivirus programs for people's new desktops and installing CD burners. I haven't really made up my mind about college, if I'm going to stick close to home or go far away." He sighed. "I still look at your picture on my bedside table every morning when I wake up, and at night before going to sleep... the one where you have your hair in a big french braid and you're wearing the red top and blue jeans, from that day we spent at the park last June." He sighed.

"I can't wait until you come home... for a long time I was hoping that you'd visit me in my dreams, but I guess even dreamwalking powers don't reach this far. I did have a dream with you in it last week... pretty sure that it wasn't really you, but it was about the two of us, and you were getting nervous and slightly nazi-ish about our wedding day." He chuckled. "It's funny the way things seem natural in dreams - obviously neither of us mentioned getting married before you left, but it seemed so natural in the dream that I actually half expected that you'd be lying beside me in bed, in that moment when I'd woken up." His smile was a little bittersweet now. "I reached out to you to wake you up and tell you about the dream, because I thought you'd think it was funny - but of course, you weren't there."

"Laurie comes down to Roswell every so often, maybe every second or third month. Just to spend time with us, because we're the only other ones who knew Michael really. I think it was especially hard on her... she was just getting used to the idea of having a brother, just getting past his walls, when you all had to go. But you'll be coming home soon, and until that day, I'll be holding on. I love you, I love you, I love you Isabel. Goodbye for now." Without a word, slowly, Alex walked out of frame, and after a moment, Maria followed.

Michael smiled - once again, Maria had changed her hair color and style since he'd seen her last, and was now wearing a short pixie cut similar to what she'd had shortly after the shooting incident, but dramatically darker, almost as rich a brown as Liz's natural shade. "Hi, Spaceboy, hi everybody else," she said, waving at the camera. She took a moment to get herself arranged on the bed - she was wearing heavy boots, loose olive pants, and a black jacket, bulging with full pockets in varying places, open over a low-cut purple tank top. "I love you, I miss you, I'm praying for you and everybody else over there, the people caught in the middle of a horrible war and everything. It seems a little odd to be talking to God about something so far away, but... well, the way I think of it, everybody on every planet in the universe are his children, He doesn't play favorites with Earth or anything. Maybe it's nice for him to hear an Earthling who's concerned with something a little beyond our own backyard."

"Umm... okay, probably I've made you very uncomfortable rambling on about *that*, so let's move." Maria chuckled softly. Max shot a look at Michael, who was shaking his head and smiling. Maria's image might have changed radically in just a few months, but it was quite obvious that Michael was just as much in love with her as ever. "Liz beat me to the punch about these Mexican Gonzales bastards, but, well... I've got a few ideas up my sleeve, but they won't work with just the two of us. Liz made me promise not to ask Taccy to help, but - well, that doesn't mean that you guys might not be able to order him to lend a hand, right?? It's nothing that'll be dangerous or damage too much property, just trying to fight petty harassment with petty harassment."

"Mom and Mister Valenti are still doing the whole will-they-or-won't-they dance, and I'm getting more than a little truly sick and tired of it. Jim Valenti started this odd retro rockabilly band, and he asked me to stand in with them a few times, guest singing. This A&R chick from New York showed up one night and tried to sign me for a contract, but - well, I went to Alex and talked about it for a little while, he was enthusiastic but had some good down-to-earth concerns, so I met Dominique again and talked with her a lot more, and I realized that she didn't care about any of the same things that I care about in my music, and if I tried to do anything at all with her I'd have driven myself crazy. All that she was looking for was a new Britney Spears wannabe with a southwest kinduv attitude - somebody that her label could mold as they pleased into a pop idol that was calculated to appeal to the mass market as broadly as possible. Despite all the potential fame and money - that's just not me, and I told her so. What d'ya know, I have artistic integrity and I won't sell out on it! So that was that, haven't heard from her again, of course."

"Let's see, what else do I have to say? Stay safe, stay strong, and kick Kivar's butt for me. Do you like being an alien general or whatever for real? I just hope that I get you back sometime relatively soon. I saved all of your stuff from the apartment, since you didn't pack anything up before you left except for the clothes on your back - and a few things to remember, I guess. I've been sleeping in your big long t-shirts lately - the Metalhead Red is probably my favorite." Maria chuckled deeply. "It still feels like you're near me, whatever I'm doing and wherever I go. That's kind of weird, but nice too." Maria smiled, blew a kiss to the 'camera', and left for Kyle to take his turn.

"Okay, Tess, I think we're running a bit low on *time* here,so I'll cut right to the point, " Kyle started quickly, glaring out into the peanut gallery for a moment. He was wearing usual casual things - blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt, and smiling even while griping about the time. " I love you, I miss you very much, and I wish that I could have come with you, even if it meant leaving my home behind." He sighed. "But since you didn't know if it was safe for us to ride in the Granilith... well, I'll wait as long as it takes for you guys to sort your stuff out, over there. Let's see, umm... the band thing is actually working pretty well for Dad, which you can color me surprised about, but at least it means that we don't have to queue up the bills in order of severity and that's good. I've been wondering about my choices after graduation, haven't really come up with anything good except maybe joining the air force." He shrugged. "Or maybe not."

"It... it tears me up inside, to think about what you're going through, especially now, and... and I really think it's unfair of the universe to keep me from being there by your side. I... I want to see what you look like now, with your face glowing even more than it usually does, because I wouldn't have thought that was possible..." Kyle was beyond words for a moment, and Max snuck a look back at Tess, who was beside and behind him. The position she was sitting in made the advanced state of her pregnancy especially evident - Tess would probably be giving birth in a week or two, if that.

"I wish I could hold your hand as you go into labor. I wish I could be one of the first people in all the galaxy to see our baby after she's born." Kyle took a deep breath. "But... but there's no sense in getting hung up on all of the things that I'd wish, is there? Not very zen of me." Tess barked with laughter. "So I'll just keep walking down the road I'm on, knowing that you'll come back and find me as soon as you possibly can - both of you."

"You're my only true love, you're my strength, and I won't be complete until the day you're here by my side. So see you then." He looked around. "Come on, guys, let's give them one good group shot before the time runs out." But it was not to be. As Liz and Alex were walking back into frame, the picture suddenly winked out. Michael whined in a very unmanly way when he realized he wasn't going to get another look at Maria, but choked it off quickly.

Isabel looked up at Max. "Can... can we record a message of our own on that thing, maybe? And send it back?"

Max smiled.

"Hey - not for two weeks yet!" Tess insisted.

"Okay," Michael allowed. "But no gross delivery room footage."

Tess swatted him affectionately.

THE END.


End file.
